By Eric Lochridge

Saturday, April 18, has been declared Record Store Day, a day for independent record stores to celebrate the art of music.
Founded in 2007, Record Store Day is now held the third Saturday in April each year. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet-and-greets with artists, parades and DJs spinning records. Special vinyl and CD releases and other promo items are produced, and artists make special appearances and performances.
Locally, Ernie November in Rapid City will be holding an in-store concert from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday. Featured bands are locals Spirula, White Eyes and Vonveederveld. There also will be discounts on merchandise.
Lest the cynics among you begin to think that what constitutes an indie record store is nebulously defined, the Record Store Day Web site has this little note:
“A Record Store Day participating store is defined as a physical retailer whose product line consists of at least 50 percent music retail, whose company is not publicly traded and whose ownership is at least 70 percent located in the state of operation. (In other words, we’re dealing with real, live, physical, indie record stores — not online retailers or corporate behemoths).”

So take that, behemoths.

By Todd Williams

It’s always been a question of mine. How is it that some folks, even one’s with immense talent and who unabashedly refuse over-production (ahem, Paul Westerberg) manage only to put out an album every so many years and other folks, such as Ryan Adams, put out multiple albums in a single year.
You can claim quality, but it took Guns ‘N Roses about 15 years to bring “Chinese Democracy” into being, and although it isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever heard, it certainly isn’t a masterpiece.
And then, there’s the peculiar case of Jack White. White isn’t content just to put out multiple albums in one year, he has to now have multiple bands as well. Already the driving force behind the White Stripes and a key member of the much beloved Racounteurs, White has unveiled his hand in a third band, The Dead Weather.
All I can say is, wowza. I can’t wait to hear what they sound like.

By Eric Lochridge

I heard rumblings throughout most of last year about how good Bon Iver’s “For Emma, Forever Ago” is. So at long last, I have finally taken the opportunity for a listen, and the album surely is mesmerizing. I’m totally hooked.

And apparently, the band’s next release, the four-song EP “Blood Bank,” is due later this month. I don’t think it’ll take long for me to pick that one up.

It’s funny how ubiquitous free music is becoming.

I mean, there was the whole Wilco experiment with “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” And then there was Radiohead’s “pay as much as you want” and releasing a full album on the Internet.

And, of course, there’s the modified course, such as Paul Westerbergs 49:00, which is a whole album of material that was briefly available at 99 cents on Amazon and some other sites.

But I ran into a new one recently. I get up between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. to begin my shift. Now the first three or four hours of my shift is right there in my bedroom at the computer station. That’s where I write my morning column.

And while I’m writing, the TiVo often will change the TV station (yes, I have the TV on generally, even at that hour of the morning) so that it can download its content. It does this two or three times a week.

Anyway, it basically runs modified advertising while its downloading schedules and the such on to your TiVo box. And it is often the same stuff, repeated over and over.

One of those extended commercials that played through what seemed an entire summer was a tourism ad for the state of Texas. And one of the songs that played on it was really catchy — generally, a little more country than most of my likes, but I still liked it. Kind of like if the Cowboy Junkies went ultra pop.

Anyway, I searched far and wide for the song. First iTunes — no luck. Then Google, then Limewire and Bearshare, all with no luck. Egads, it seemed unfindable.

Then I went to the state of Texas’ tourism Web site, and after mining through enough the page, I found a link to the mp3. Not only a video of the commercial , but also a downloadable mp3 free of charge.

Heck, I wanted to pay for it, but they must look at it as a form of advertisement. Not that I’m complaining, but it hurts my head sometimes when I think back to 10 years ago and how unfathomable that scenario would have been.

Is it where it needs to be? Probably not. But the electronic makeup of music has forced the industry to change, even if it’s at a snails pace.

By the way, the song was “I’m Free” by Barbara Breckinridge. And no, it isn’t the song made popular by The Who, but you probably already figured that out by my description of the song.

By: Aubrey Watts

Journal Staff

The boards are open for full on discussion…….

Whether you are riding in your car, stuck in an office or out enjoying the weather on a beautiful sunny summer day, what is the best genre/band/group of bands you like to listen to?